WERID Thinking GM students

Description

Behavioural scientists Heinrich at al. (2010) argued that the majority of academic research was carried out in WEIRD: Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic societies. They argue that American and Western Europeans focus on analytical reasoning by decontextualising to conceptualise generalizable rules, whereas people from other types of society see the world differently. This talk will argue that that critical thinking is culturally specific to WEIRD societies. Recently critical thinking scholars have called for cultural diversity to be acknowledged (Brookfield, 2017) but they have stopped short of researching and generating frameworks for how this could be applied to the practice and teaching of critical thinking. Campbell-Stevens (2020) coined the term Global Majority, a collective term for people who are racially minoritized due to the colour of their skin. Representing about 80% of the world’s population, it includes people who live in or are descended from the global south including: Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Campbell-Stevens (2009) further argues for GM educationalists to be able to lead and teach within their own cultural paradigms. Mbembe (2017) argues that ‘indigenous’ wisdom can help teachers to change their teaching by valuing diverse ways of thinking and collective thought. The session will be in 2 parts. The first 15 minutes is a consisting of provocations to encourage the audience to confront their own WEIRD thinking. The second part includes collaborative activities to support participants to further their shifting thinking or put new insights into practice.

Brookfield (2017) Becoming a critically reflective teacher. 2nd San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Campbell-Stevens, R. (2020) Global Majority; Decolonising the language and Reframing the Conversation about Race. Leeds-Beckett [online] Available from: https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/-/media/files/schools/school-of-education/final-leeds-beckett-1102-global-majority.pdf
Campbell-Stephens. (2009). Investing in diversity: changing the face (and the heart) of educational leadership. School Leadership & Management, 29(3), 321–331. Available from DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/13632430902793726
Heinrich, J. Heine, S. and Norenzayan, A. (2010) The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and brain Sciences 33 pp61-135
Mbembe, A. J. (2016). Decolonizing the university: New directions. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 15(1), 29–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474022215618513

Period	22 Jun 2023
Event title	LLS Everyone a Researcher Conference 2023
Event type	Conference
Location	Northampton, United KingdomShow on map